Ex-MLB star's 911 call: My wife has gun

Jul. 11, 2013
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Booking mug of of Anna Benson, estranged wife of former Major League pitcher Kris Benson. She was arrested in Georgia on Monday morning on felony weapons and assault charges after confronting her husband in the home they once shared. / From Cobb County Sheriff's Department

by Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY Sports

by Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY Sports

After she was arrested in Georgia for allegedly threatening former big league pitcher Kris Benson with a gun and whacking his computer terminal with an expandable baton, Anna Benson, his estranged wife, told police she was wearing a bulletproof vest just to break it in for a better fit.

"She said that it was a new model (vest) she was testing for a company. She said she had to wear it for an extended time to get it to 'mold to her body,''' says the report filed by police in Smyrna, Ga., after the Sunday incident at a home she and her husband once shared.

A police report said the items taken from Anna Benson included a Taurus Judge handgun, a hatchet, a taser, an ammunition vest, a loaded ammunition belt, a knife and an expandable baton.

Benson, 37, a former model and exotic dancer, remains in jail without bond in Cobb County, Georgia. She is charged with three felonies: two counts of aggravated assault with a weapon and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or attempt to commit a felony. Benson also faces a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass.

If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault and five years for possession of a firearm or knife in the commission of or attempt to commit a felony, according to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office.

Kris Benson pitched in Major Leagues Baseball from 1999 to 2010 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Ranges and Arizona Diamondbacks. After starring at Clemson University, he was the first pick in the 1996 draft by Pittsburgh.

Anna Benson appeared in 2011 on the VH1 reality TV show Baseball Wives. She and her husband were married in 1999. He has filed for divorce. They were raising four children, including a child of hers from a previous marriage.

In the incident report, Kris Benson told police that when he came out of a bathroom he saw his wife in the bedroom holding an expandable baton. He said "she was threatening him with the stick and hitting her vest with it â?¦ (and) that she sat down at his desk and hit his computer with the baton."

Kris Benson told police his wife then went to her purse, took out a handgun and said she wanted $30,000. He said he told her he needed to go get his wallet, went to the basement, called 911 and left the house to wait in the woods until police arrived.

Asked by police what he thought his wife was going to do with the baton, Benson replied, "Hit me with it." He said she was "screaming and out of control."

Asked what he thought she was going to do with the gun, he said, "It scared me" and "I wasn't sure because of the way she was acting," according to the police report

Asked if he thought she might shot him, Benson said, "Maybe."

The report said police found Anna Benson on the porch smoking a cigarette. She complied with a command to lie down and was handcuffed behind her back. At that time, she told police, "It's inside." Asked what she meant, she said, "The gun."

She told police she went to the house to speak with her husband "about why he hadn't picked up the kids and to discuss money." She told police he owed her the money.

"At first she said she got the gun out of her purse and that it was in her hand when she confronted him, but she changed her statement and said it wasn't in her hand."

Anna Benson said she cursed her husband and went to get her cigarette lighter "The next thing she knew the police were talking to her," the report said.

When informed she was under arrest, she began crying and told police she "didn't do anything wrong," according to the report.